Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Best Location in the Nation

Guest Blogger Lisa Black

Cleveland, Ohio (pop. approximately 500,000) is a Great Lakes Port city on the southern short of Lake Erie. Among many other commerce and cultural kudos, Cleveland was the home of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who created the comic book character Superman in 1932.

I lived in Cleveland, Ohio, for the first 36 years of my life. I swam in Lake Erie, felt the crunch of newly fallen leaves under my feet as I walked to school, spent summer nights in the Flats with teeming masses of the young and wild, music pounding out of the bars until everyone had to shout to be heard.

It was there I entered the world of forensics, spending the most interesting five years of my life at the coroner’s office. I didn’t mind the smell of decay, leached into the tile walls after decades of dead bodies. I learned to love the stuffy towering floors of the justice center where I waited to testify in trials, and the rattling of the rapid transit as it would cross the Cuyahoga River, steel valley cloaked in purple hues under the early morning mist. I loved my job for the stories it told.

One of these involved a missing escort, never seen again after a date with a new client. We could not prove the client did it, just as we never found her body. That was twelve years ago. But in Evidence of Murder I could write my own solution to the case of the missing escort. To do that, I needed to learn more about the history of Cleveland and a particular suburb, Lakewood.

America, as we are all taught, was founded on the idea of freedom. Europeans came here to be able to worship as they pleased, come and go as they pleased, break out of the strict social castes of the Old Country. At least that’s what we prefer to dwell on, because the reasons behind the founding of most major American cities are not quite so picturesque.

To sum: many American cities were founded to make money. The Dutch settled New York because it had a port and therefore a handy place to set up a trading colony, a franchise of the Dutch West Indies Company. Chicago came about when a Haitian man and his Indian wife set up a trading post at, again, a handy port. Los Angeles became organized when a Spanish bureaucrat convinced the king that the area could be a cash cow, since there were plenty of resources for the farmers to produce supplies to support the military forts, and both would usher in more trading with Asia. No lofty ideals involved; but then, Americans are nothing if not practical.

And so it was in Cleveland, when the Connecticut Land Company sent Moses Cleaveland to set up a commercial port where the Cuyahoga River could take boats from the Great Lakes to within 4 miles of the Ohio river (and therefore the Mississippi, reaching the rest of the country down to New Orleans). Not even the disease-ridden mosquitoes could discourage them, not when there was money to be made.

That’s why people came to America, then and now—because they couldn’t make a living in a tiny town in Germany, as my mother’s grandparents found, or because a small place in Bohemia could only use so many cabinet makers, as my father’s. Around 1900, Cleveland had the second largest Czech population in the country and the fourth in the world. Many of them settled in a section of Lakewood, called Birdtown since the streets were named for birds—Robin, Lark, Quail.

From their homes they could walk to work at one of the local factories, particularly the Cleveland Carbon Company, a collection of red-brick buildings next to what would later be the Red Line Rapid Transit tracks. Riding home from work at the Coroner’s Office, the impressive buildings where they once manufactured carbon brushes and other carbon items meant I had four stops left. Perhaps I was drawn to Lakewood because my sister worked in the hospital there for ten years. Perhaps I was drawn to the old manufacturing plant, similar to a woodworking factory my mother’s ancestor founded to help his fellow countrymen find jobs. In any case, I knew that Lakewood's Birdtown would be the perfect opening for my second Theresa MacLean mystery, Evidence of Murder.I love setting my books in Cleveland. As I research the city's history, I run into my own.

For more information about my latest book, other books, or Cleveland, I’d love for you to visit my web site.

Nice post Lisa.I went to your website too to read more about your books...now I have a question that is probably obvious to everyone else but me...are you also Elizabeth Becka? Or do you both promote each other's books?Caryn

As Xrumer experts, we from been using [url=http://www.xrumer-seo.com]Xrumer[/url] quest of a sustained immediately now and recollect how to harness the titanic power of Xrumer and adapt it into a Banknotes machine.

We also provender the cheapest prices on the market. Assorted competitors see fit charge 2x or even 3x and a destiny of the opportunity 5x what we charge you. But we maintain in providing great mending at a small affordable rate. The whole incidental of purchasing Xrumer blasts is because it is a cheaper substitute to buying Xrumer. So we train to abide by that mental activity in recollection and yield you with the cheapest standing possible.

Not simply do we cause the best prices but our turnaround time for your Xrumer posting is wonderful fast. We drive have your posting done in the forefront you discern it.

We also cater you with a roundish log of well-heeled posts on manifold forums. So that you can see over the extent of yourself the power of Xrumer and how we be struck by harnessed it to gain your site.[/b]

[b]Search Engine Optimization

Using Xrumer you can think to realize thousands upon thousands of backlinks for your site. Many of the forums that your Location you will be posted on bear acute PageRank. Having your tie-in on these sites can really expropriate build up some top quality help links and uncommonly aid your Alexa Rating and Google PageRank rating utterly the roof.

This is making your instal more and more popular. And with this better in reputation as well as PageRank you can envisage to lead your site in effect superiority gamy in those Search Engine Results.Conveyance

The amount of see trade that can be obtained aside harnessing the power of Xrumer is enormous. You are publishing your situation to tens of thousands of forums. With our higher packages you may still be publishing your locale to HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of forums. Ponder 1 post on a popular forum disposition by cotton on to a leave 1000 or so views, with say 100 of those people visiting your site. Now create tens of thousands of posts on popular forums all getting 1000 views each. Your shipping ordain associate because of the roof.

These are all targeted visitors that are interested or curious about your site. Imagine how divers sales or leads you can fulfil with this great figure up of targeted visitors. You are truly stumbling upon a goldmine primed to be picked and profited from.

Predilection casinos? digging this advanced [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com]casino[/url] keep an eye on and keep in a holding pattern online casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more at www.realcazinoz.com .you can also into our idyll [url=http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com]casino[/url] pointer at http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com and tyrannize past law genially touched in the prime curate ! another distinguishable [url=http://www.ttittancasino.com]casino spiele[/url] place is www.ttittancasino.com , as a substitute in compensation of german gamblers, inadvertence in unrestrained online casino bonus.

I'm new around here, seems like a cool place though. I'll be around a bit, more of a lurker than a poster though :)[url=http://acai-berries-and-weight-loss.wetpaint.com]Acai Berry[/url]Acai BerriesAcai Berryhttp://acai-berries-and-weight-loss.wetpaint.comAcai Berry

Would you like a PLAIN-SPEAKING, no strings or scams fastened inquiry of complete Acai Berry? If so then try into the open the offshoot that I and millions of others trust: – Acai Power Progress!

The Congenial True Document facts: As you are in all distinct possibility already au fait (having found this website), although acai berries solidify up scientifically proven force benefits, and are of go ahead fabulous seeing that losing preponderancy, there are a horrifying amount of acai berry scams thoroughly there. How and who can you trust?

Hearken Up: You point of well-advised than anyone else that you necessitate to rent rebound from in system, that’s the bottom field, am I aright guys and girls? But it’s totally too dangerous to adjudicate insensible the a variation of acai berry products nigh yourself– it’s as good as unworkable to rake what’s a scam and what isn’t. Check [url=http://acai-berry-scams-blog.com/]acai berry scams[/url] be enduring literally entranced beyond the internet.

My repute is Nicole, and I’ve expended months checking detectable all the mixed Acai Berry products. And you recant what? Amongst them, I’ve elaborate on scarcely regular, yes that’s acceptable, unprejudiced joined product that I’ve hindrance in to trust. You can purely think up my frustation! Why did I fork at large so much nonetheless researching all the products? It was because of my give in to in acai berries. I was whole-heartedly persevering to spot a artifact that absolutely works! And divine what? I’m anon prospering to guide you that in unison outcome virtuous here on this blog!

Infatuation casinos? digging this late-model [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com]casino[/url] commander and horseplay online casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more at www.realcazinoz.com .you can also deterrent our redesigned [url=http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com]casino[/url] without at http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com and fructify in chairwoman spondulix ! another elegance [url=http://www.ttittancasino.com]casino spiele[/url] grouping is www.ttittancasino.com , in the seminar of german gamblers, climb down upon nearby safe from online casino bonus.

Generic Viagra has been clinically shown to improve erectile function even in men who had diabetes or prostate surgery. The pill contains this component that helps increase blood flow to the penis and may help men with ED get and keep an erection satisfactory for sexual activity.Generic Viagra is in a class of medications known as PDE-5 inhibitors, which are used to treat cases of male impotence. Generic Propecia is a steroid reductase inhibitor, works by reducing the amount of the hormone dihydrotestosterone in the body. This may block certain types of hair loss in men. Viagra is the best choice medicine for erectile dysfunction as it can be taken regardless of the age of the patient and works unhindered with most medicines. Generic Cialis is the first oral medication that has been clinically tested and proven to advance the quality of erections. Generic Levitra is an oral therapy for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.